“A signal achievement of the Indian elite in recent years has been to take caste, give it a fresh coat of paint, and repackage it as a struggle for equality….

“Casteism is no longer in defensive denial the way it once was. (“Oh, caste? That was 50 years ago, now it barely exists.”) Today, it asserts that caste is killing the nation—but its victims are the upper castes. And the villains are the lower orders who crowd them out of the seats and jobs long held by those with merit in their genes….

“How many upper caste men have had their eyes gouged out for marrying outside their caste? How many higher caste bastis have been torched and razed in land or other disputes?

“How many upper caste folk lose a limb or even their lives for daring to enter a temple? How many Brahmins or Thakurs get beaten up, even burnt alive, for drawing water from the village well?

“How many from those whose “privileges are dwindling” have to walk four kilometres to fetch water? How many upper caste groups are forced to live on the outskirts of the village, locked into an eternal form of indigenous apartheid?”

7 comments

What does the data by SC/ST commission show? Who oppress Dalits? Its the OBCs. Sainath is a commie. Let him tell us what has CPI/M done to uplift “Dalits” in West Bengal, Kerala in last 30-40 years. What does the statistics say? Why he not ask Lalu, Mulayam – his friends on these?

These people made a industry out of Caste. Occassional Croc tears. Now, even Dalits are divided along religion and what not.

Future of India is bleak precisely because of these types of people. Hindus are hopelessly getting divided along caste. Mullahs are breathing firs. Godrej will soon be out of business. And Calcutta Book Fair, world’s largest in terms of people attendance has been fatwaed NOT TO KEEP A SINGLE COPY OF TASLIMA’S BOOK.

Its this hopelessness that is making entry of Modi at national level even more likely.

Sainath’s reasoning is from the Darrell Huff’s classic treaty “How to lie with Statistics”.

He is using many of the techniques what Huff warned against.

He seemed biased even before he started this and did not use any analysis of national crime records.

He chose his sample in Dalits and then justified reservation for backwards!!

His reasoning that a foreign woman’s molestation case was settled within 14 days whereas a dalit case is languishing for 14 years is again a misrepresentation for Dalit case. So in other words even foreigners get preferential treatment than dalits. Sainath.. that is the fact foreigners get better treatment than even president of india when the powerful governments are involved
Mr Sainath how about me drawing your attention to other cases. Mr HKL Bhagat a OBC killed many forward caste sikhs during 1984 riots.. That case is still pending!! Can we say now that judicial system favors OBCs

what is this sainath saar…if you allow this trend to continue all those things which say are not happening – gouging out the eyes, evacuation from land and so on – will follow in the reverse order. Equality does not mean creating new powerful groups but making everyone equally powerful….Sainath’s has been doing this sweeping generalisation about poverty, globalilsation and other social issues for sometime. However, since he takes up issues which are not generally covered by the media, he has been given an exalted position among journalists, and finally a Magsaysay to top it. Well he deserved it for writing things others chose ignore and for doing all the legwork but it is time he is given a lesson or two in analysing the data that he painstakingly collects

Excellent article by Sainath. That WSJ article quoted by Churumuri was clearly racist. The presumption that Brahmins somehow deserve a better life is disgusting. The problem is none among us [main stream media, churumuri, the commenters] can visualize the absolute hypocrisy of that WSJ article, becos we are all blinded by our caste prejudices.

Sir,
Is oppression by OBCs on dalits justifiable as some here seem to suggest?Even today a dalit cannot be president of one of the village panchayats in Madurai reserved for dalits because of objection from OBCs.
Today in our Indian cricket team tendulkar,Kumble,Ganguly,Dravid,Sharma,Laxman,Kartik are there on sheer merit.Nobody talks about Brahmins which is their caste.How a population of 3% is so well represented in this team?Why we have a dhoni,yuvraj,kapildev coming in occasionally while Brahmins dominate this post?Why merit is lacking among the OBCs,dalits etc? Wherever merit is the criterion as in IIm,IIT, etc brahmins will come on SHEER MERIT.Unless this problem is rectified and OBCs,dalits are able to emerge , we as a nation will languish.

I am afraid, all the atrocities mentioned by sainath is unfortunately true … and I have been witness to quite a few horrors(why don’t you people visit some villages just on the outskirts of bangalore/mysore … or rather watch a Sankranthi: serial made by T.S.Nagabharana). I think many people might not agree with sainath or me on this issue probably because of “city people” mentality. I am a bit perplexed by these “City People” sitting in A/C chambers, typing away to glory on a computer …. comment on something happening in place where there is no electricity or basic medical facilities. They(city people) have to understand that our villages are still in medieval age (where caste of an individual does the talking), unlike our cities which are fortunately not within the grasp of an ugly shadow called caste. I am not singling out any particular community (or forward castes) for dalit oppression, instead the entire system itself. Eradicating caste system is practically impossible (& unhealthy also) because the caste has been ingrained in our thinking and caste has been an integral part of our culture. I can only hope that our society takes a more tolerant stance towards caste/dalits, and by positively assuring them of their rights … remove whatsoever doubts in the minds of dalits about our intolerant past/misdeeds.